Β The Jungle BookΒ (1894) is a collection of stories by English authorΒ Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893β94. The original publications contain illustrations, some by the author's father,Β John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six years of his childhood there. After about ten years in England, he went back to India and worked there for about six-and-a-half years. These stories were written when Kipling lived inΒ Naulakha, the home he built inΒ Dummerston,Β Vermont(just north ofΒ Brattleboro), in the United States.Β There is evidence that the collection of stories was written for his daughter Josephine, who died in 1899 at six years of age; a rare first edition of the book with a poignant handwritten note by the author to his young daughter was discovered at theΒ National Trust'sΒ Wimpole HallΒ in Cambridgeshire in 2010.
The tales in the book (as well as those inΒ The Second Jungle BookΒ which followed in 1895, and which includes five further stories about Mowgli) areΒ fables, using animals in anΒ anthropomorphicΒ manner to give moral lessons. The verses ofΒ The Law of the Jungle, for example, lay down rules for the safety of individuals, families, and communities. Kipling put in them nearly everything he knew or "heard or dreamed about the Indian jungle.
Joseph Rudyard KiplingΒ was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born inΒ British India, which inspired much of his work. Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865 inΒ Bombay, in theΒ Bombay PresidencyΒ ofΒ British India, toΒ Alice KiplingΒ andΒ John Lockwood Kipling.
Kipling's works of fiction include theΒ Jungle BookΒ duologyΒ (The Jungle Book, 1894;Β The Second Jungle Book, 1895),Β "Kim"Β (1901), theΒ "Just So Stories"Β (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "Ifβ" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Β His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".